Manchester United in memory of First World War

All wearing poppies, all smartly turned out, Manchester United’s Under-12s
gathered in a hotel near Ypres on Saturday night to exchange gifts with
their counterparts from Germany, Belgium and France as part of the Premier
League Christmas Truce tournament. The idea behind the meeting is to
celebrate the fabled football match that broke out in no-man’s-land in 1914.

Lest we forget: Manchester United’s Under-12s have celebrated the famous football match in no-man’s-land in 1914 in YpresPhoto: PA

The presents were simple, pennants and scarves and an array of United training kit, but the gesture was appreciated and reciprocated by the youngsters of Borussia Dortmund, Genk and Lens. Most young footballers relish the chance to acquire kit, particularly those of the famous English champions.

The teams have been engaged in a four-way tournament, climaxing today at KVK Ieper’s ground in West Flanders. The emphasis is only partly on youth development and giving them the experience of facing opposition from other nations. The tournament also aims to foster goodwill between the countries and also an understanding of the horrors that befell so many of their forebears in the trenches that scarred the area.

Brian McClair’s team have already laid a wreath at the Menin Gate and stood through the Last Post ceremony. His players have researched United soldiers who never returned from the First World War, including Sandy Turnbull, a prolific scorer who settled the 1909 FA Cup final.

Turnbull lost his life at Arras in 1917 amid the “shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells’’ and the “stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle” as depicted by the poet Wilfred Owen in his Anthem for Doomed Youth. He left a widow and four children back in Gorse Hill, Stretford.

Other soldiers with United connections who perished in the Great War include Arthur Beadsworth, a forward killed in 1917 whose memorial can be found in Wimereux Communal Cemetery. The full-back Oscar Linkson never survived the battle for Guillemont Station during the Somme Offensive of 1916. Linkson’s name can be found at the Thriepval Memorial.

Manchester United’s next generation have certainly been assiduous in commemorating the sacrifice of an earlier generation while also forging links with Germans, Belgians and French. As McClair observed: “It’s important to understand that football has a wonderful power to build bridges.’’